Most of the instructions I’ve seen for bullet-head flies start with the body and work towards the front. I’ve always had problems attaching the hair for the head and getting it to spin properly with the stub ends of the body and wing getting in the way, so I decided to reverse the process and tie the hair for head in first, letting it protrude out over the front of the fly while I tie in the rest:
a little thread to get things started (UTC 140 works great)
a good hunk of hair (I like elk for the head but deer’s fine, too) about shank length; you really want to use more hair than you think you need, which is somewhat counter-intuitive
trim the butts, a couple soft loops and then pull firmly, letting the hair spin around the shank
like so
trim the butts (optional, but makes for a neater fly)
The hair doesn’t get in my way and I find it provides a nice base to attach the body and wing.
a drop of Crazy Glue helps secure everything here
add underwing (landscape fabric)
add overwing
push the head hair back over the fly; a finger works fine (guess those bullet-head tools would, too). Cinch it all down with a few firm wraps, add legs, a little Sally Hansen, trim out the bottom and Bob’s your uncle
They’re a little putzy at first (mostly proportions, amounts and thread tension), but not hard and I got the hang of it after a few flies. Cool thing about the extended foam bodies is they’re simple, you can make a bunch up ahead of time, bag them up and use as needed.
FWIW, I don’t spin the hair when I do bullet heads. I just shove a stack on from the front with the hook eye in the middle of the stack. You have to work the thread a little bit through the hair, but it’s not a big deal.
By just adding a pic or two and brief description on how to make the extended foam body, this would make a neat FOTW article. Neil would appreciate it, for sure.
push the foam strip onto the needle and then attach the tying thread (like I said previously, UTC 140 works great)
squeeze the foam, and adjust to where you want the first body segment
couple fairly firm thread loops around the foam (but not too firm or the thread will cut)
then “split the uprights”, move the thread between the foam “fingers” and up the needle to where you want the next segment
repeat
and again
tie off with a couple half-hitches, slide the body off the needle
trim the back end and front, brush a little Sally Hansen on the thread wraps and you’re ready to go (excuse the mortar on my fingers, I’m doing this while laying tile in my bathroom)
You can go production mode and make a bunch of these bodies ahead of time (no need to carry 2 vises or go back-and-forth between needle and hook in 1 vise).
What strikes me is what an advance your “bullethead first” approach is for this style of fly. I can’t hardly imagine tying in the bullethead on this pattern as the next to last step.
I tied a lot of ugly flies before I switched the sequence. I’m sure some’s been doing it this way for years, but any instruction I saw had the head go on last.
I like using the needle technique for these kind of bodies. I however tie the foam 90* to how you have it orientated therefore the slit is on the sides. I doubt the fish care and I believe your way may be better in that it’s likely easier to mount on the hook and also tilt so the hook gap is easier to leave “open”.
So for me two good points made…[I have however seen the head first approach presented somewhere] but needed a reminder…Thanks.
